The Roo Collective Snippet 2

 Here is the second snippet:

A Matter of Survival

 

Lop Ear sighed heavily as he checked his zone. Nothing. It was getting near dark; his turn as sentry would end soon.

Most of the warren was hidden in the shelters in the area and in the thocker and thumper trees. Temporary shelters were to be built in the night by the cutters. But they needed to do something about the food and shelter situation. His stomach rumbled.

He had given all of his food to his pregnant mate earlier, claiming he wasn't hungry. He didn't regret it; she had a litter in her belly and had to feed them. If her body did not have enough food, the litter would die. Neither of them wanted that, but it might be for the best.

It was getting cold. He could feel the heat seeping through his clothes as the sun's warming rays fell lower on the horizon. It was bitter to want something that for his entire life he had feared. To be out exposed was a terrifying thing for most of the warren. It was no surprise that many of the elderly and easily frightened had died of heart trouble from the stress and anxiety.

It was their second night out of the warren. The meager supplies in the shelters were about exhausted. Something had to be done.

He looked over to the warren. It was a crater; the giants had been busy digging the main shaft up over the day. He was again bitter, this time in anger at such destruction. So many of his kind had died in the attack.

He felt a touch and looked to see Shredded Paw. The sentry nodded to him. He nodded back and passed over the spear before he went off to relieve himself and then head inside.

Black Speckle found him almost immediately. She gave him water to drink, which he did. Once she was satisfied with that, she led him over to a small cove in the roots and pushed him down.

He had brought her straw and leaves. The leaves had been dry from the cooling air but she'd nibbled on some and used the rest as bedding material for herself and some of the does nearby. Fur lined the improvised nest. She pushed him down and then climbed on top of him.

He wordlessly protested and rolled to cover her with his own body for warmth. She poked him until he ended up on his side with her nuzzled under his arm. He gently stroked her head and flat ears.

She twitched her nose and then closed her eyes and went to sleep. He soon followed.

~======~

Counter noted the shift change and nodded wearily. He was bone tired. He wasn't getting much sleep, and his thoughts were beginning to slow. It was hard to keep up. There was so much sorrow.

They still didn't have a nose count on the losses. They had finally gotten in touch with the far flung shelters. Some of his people had fled to there, others were said to have gone and moved on. They wouldn't know the full death toll for some time.

He was already angry and saddened by it. A lot of his people had ignored the warnings to head up and had instead followed instincts and burrowed deeper to their doom. The poison gas that the giants had unleashed had killed them. Even if they'd found a way to barricade themselves into a tunnel, the fog-like gas seeped through the ground itself.

The day before they had seen the giants excavate the warren core. They had taken many things from it. Some things were disdainfully thrown to the side. Bodies that were found were sent to the clearing and the Giant's Warren thing.

He had watched warily and sadly. It had hurt to see so many snuffed out so callously. Death was not unknown to the Roo and not just in singles. Sometimes fire or flood would take many. Sometimes disease or even fear would. But this was different.

Those other things he could do little about. A predator could be killed. These predators though, they were too dangerous to fight. Roos survived by hiding from such monsters.

He had suppressed the urge to hold a memorial for the dead. He knew it hurt one and all, but the thumping would have attracted the attention of the Giants. They had to be quiet and hope that the enemy stayed occupied with their spoils and did not go looking for the refugees.

He looked at the slowly sinking orb in the sky and then around them. This was the longest he had ever been near the surface, and the tension gnawed at him like many others. That and the cold, he had some clothing due to his advanced age, one never felt completely warm as you grew older, but this was different. They didn't have stout earth around them to keep the warmth in—nor nests, nor food. His stomach gnawed on his insides right on queue.

He gnawed on his well-gnawed stick to ease the hunger pang for a moment.

He had sent out runners to the far-flung communities after Fast Thumper had thunked out the warning in the tree. There had been muted answers from two of their nearest neighbors. Green Painted Rocks had sent a short reply and then went silent.

No doubt they did not want to give away their position. In a way, he couldn't blame them.

They had plenty of water. They had temporary shelter, though the trees and hidden shelters would not last through the long cold. They needed a proper warren. They needed to break the community up and send them in convoys to their neighbors soon or find a new nesting place.

It was already shaping up to be a harsh cold season. All of their supplies were in the warren's chambers. Those that had been stored in the shelters for emergency use had been depleted.

Hunters, Defenders, Breeders, and Gathers had warily gone out to take in what they could. Cutters had brought in wood but it was too dangerous to burn. They had shifted their focus to gathering what nesting material they could to insulate the hollows and roots that were being used as small nesting sites.

It wasn't enough though. His people were packed into the tree and shelters. They had little room to move within. Worse, some of the younglings were beginning to gnaw on the roots out of hunger. The Does were drying up for lack of food to produce nourishing milk. The younglings had to eat or they too would die.

In a way it might be for the best, he thought grimly.

~======~